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Le billet vert. Le succès du recyclage de jouet se confirme à Noël

Plusieurs entreprises ou sites se proposent de recycler ou de donner une deuxième jeunesse aux jouets.

Le Père Noël va bientôt passer avec sa hotte remplie de jouets et de peluches. S'il y a parfois trop de cadeaux pour certains, les jouets restent quand même trop chers pour d’autres. Plusieurs solutions écologiques cherchent à remédier à ce paradoxe de Noël. De bonnes options en attendant qu'une révolution touche le secteur du jouet en 2022 avec la création d'une filière de collecte et de recyclage, comme pour les piles ou les emballages. Les jouets vont coûter quelques centimes ou quelques euros de plus pour financer un éco-organisme qui devra les collecter et les recycler. Il devra aussi éco-concevoir les produits pour en refaire de nouveau plus facilement. Aujourd’hui, des distributeurs et des marques comme Hasbro travaillent avec des professionnels du recyclage des plastiques comme Terracycle pour ne plus polluer nos sols ou notre air à cause des 100 000 tonnes de jouets jetés chaque année en France.

Can Loop disrupt society's packaging habit? Inside TerraCycle's grand experiment

The reusable shopping platform, which launched with big hype and is now eyeing retail, has already raised one key question in its early days: What are the true costs of convenience? https://www.wastedive.com/user_media/cache/4f/64/4f647d68810b54052f6342aeecab9ad3.jpg Tom Szaky, CEO of recycling company Terracycle, firmly believes that ditching disposable packaging doesn’t have to mean disposing of its benefits. Affordability, mainstream selection, "having the cool, new thing," and, most of all, convenience, are all elements of modern retail Szaky feels can be preserved in a package-free economy. Brands, he believes, just need the right model. In May, Terracycle launched a venture in circular economy shopping called Loop, bringing mainstream food and personal care products to consumers’ doorsteps in reusable, refillable packaging. The products come from some of the world’s biggest plastic polluters as defined by a 2018 Greenpeace audit across six continents. The idea has been to even out a skewed playing field between disposable and reusable packaging options, turning the complicated process of refilling and returning empty containers into a simple, one-click act. Since the launch, Loop has been hailed as a new take on "the milkman," a nostalgic reference to the dairy industry’s unique, circular model of distribution that once had so much consumer buy-in across the United States. Yet far from the simple routes of the neighborhood milkman, Loop is reverse engineering circularity onto products and supply chains designed for recycling or disposability. Its direct-to-consumer trial has been a virtuosic case study in marketing and reverse logistics. But the pilot – the object of much hype in the last six months, with a reported waitlist of 85,000 – was never designed to exceed 5,000 households in North America and another 5,000 in France. The company is planning to launch a more integrated approach and expand into multiple new countries next year. And while TerraCycle says it is too early to know how these pilots will perform, many in the recycling sector are curious to see just how disruptive this concept might be. The experiment, as it has unfolded until now, begs a pressing question: What are the true environmental and logistical costs of convenience? Rethinking convenience Szaky has good reason to want to bring convenience to a niche, package-free market. Currently, it’s in short supply. Catherine Conwaya package-free consultant based in the U.K., said she has found one of the main challenges for this form of shopping to be the behavior change it asks of consumers. Her business Unpackaged targets waste by reinventing stores’ bulk aisles to encourage reuse and refill with bring-your-own containers. "For the last 30 or 40 years, consumers have been told that all they should care about is convenience and price. So currently all they care about is convenience and price," explained Conway in an interview with Waste Dive. "You’ve now got to get across the message of why it’s going to be a bit inconvenient for them." This, she says, is why package-free shopping has remained on the fringes of retail. Many are put off by the limited offerings available in bulk, or simply aren’t willing to perform the extra work it entails. "I think there’s a lot of misconceptions out there about the number of hoops a consumer will jump through in the name of more sustainable packaging," Adam Gendell, associate director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), told Waste Dive. After all, any system is only as good as the number of people who will actually use it, and most people will only use it if it’s easy for them to do so. Gendell lauded the "milkman style" distribution model that Loop has adopted, where little is asked of consumers and the company is "not asking people to take 20 steps to get the package back" but instead "saying 'Here’s your reusable package, please get the stuff out of it, put it back outside, and forget about it.'" For shoppers, Loop’s direct-to-consumer model appears to do just that. The only behavior change required is to place used containers back in the Loop tote and schedule a pick-up online. Customers are incentivized to perform this last step because they have put down fully refundable container deposits on each item (a requisite for participation in the service), though these can be quite high. In her review of the service, Supply Chain Dive’s Emma Cosgrove commented that in addition to some products being more expensive – Loop’s dry black beans, for example, were 60% more than a bulk price in a grocery store – the deposits were cause for some sticker shock. "On my first order," she wrote, "I paid $30.50 in deposits including the $15.00 deposit for the shipping box – 23% of my total order." For brands, who also put hefty down payments and investment in new packaging to participate, Loop acts as an accommodating plug-in to a relatively hands-off reusable model. "Everything we do is always as a third party," said Benjamin Weir, Loop’s North America program manager, in an interview. The company's first task is working with brands to develop and test reusable packaging for each product. This can be simpler when brands request a "stock" container (a glass jar or an aluminum tin). It can get more complicated when they require customization, like in the case of the Häagen-Dazs stainless steel container or the Crest glass mouthwash bottle designed in conjunction with Kohler, featuring a silicone sleeve and a stainless steel cap. Once packaging is selected, a sanitation system is determined and then audited by brands. Loop outsources this portion of its work to specialized vendors at a cleaning facility located in Pennsylvania. It’s a learning curve, Weir told Waste Dive, as vendors providing sanitation services typically clean medical-grade equipment or aerospace parts – products far too valuable to dispose of after a single-use. For Loop’s purposes, they must be trained to clean consumer product-sized goods. In addition to cleaning services, Loop also provides brands with fulfillment – not to be confused with product refilling – at a warehouse in New Jersey, where orders of Loop totes are packed and prepared for delivery. These warehousing services are also outsourced. Finally, once the orders are prepared, totes are delivered to shoppers’ homes by UPS, the carrier Loop has partnered with for logistics. Balancing sustainability with availability Preserving ease-of-use for brands and consumers doesn’t come easy. The dairy industry to which Loop is so often compared enjoyed the luxury of managing just one product, produced and distributed regionally, with a standard package that had been designed with reusability and sanitation in mind from the very start. Production, cleaning, fulfillment and distribution all happened in the same place and dairy farms had relative control over their local supply chains. And milk, a product consumed regularly, was delivered on a "subscription" basis making the demand for refills constant and stable. Loop enjoys almost none of those advantages. The pilot offers 123 products on its website featuring over a dozen different types of packaging, each with its own distinct sanitization process. And being a third party means that, while Loop is responsible for sanitation of containers in regional warehouses, refilling remains in the hands of manufacturers located throughout the country. Nestlé, who is trialing Häagen-Dazs ice cream with Loop, told CNN they’re trucking refills of product from California to the East Coast. The winding reverse logistics for products that are – unlike the milkman – not locally sourced have caused some to question whether the additional impacts aren't nullifying any sustainability goals. "Loop is trying to minimize waste, but does that process still take into account the emissions to take that product back and reuse it and wash it and reprocess it and send it back out?" queried Alexis Bateman, director of the Sustainable Supply Chains program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an interview with Waste Dive. "I think that overvaluing one impact over another is usually the pitfall that these kinds of solutions come into." Weir said Loop is aware of some of the environmental impacts posed by adding mileage to the supply chain and using higher grade materials. "We’ve always said that this system is not always designed to service a large quantity of households. You’ll never see more than 5,000 households in our system right now, as is," he said. Working with the consulting firm Long Trail Sustainability, Loop has performed life cycle analyses (LCA) on all of its packaging to determine the cradle-to-grave environmental impacts. Rick Zultner, Loop's vice president of research and development, told Waste Dive these assessments showed that at 10 reuse cycles, the Loop e-commerce trial had a 35% reduction in global warming potential as compared to a "similar model." "The Loop system is very proficient at solving the waste problem, but we have to think beyond that," said Weir. "We have to think about the sustainability of the entire ecosystem and whether we are creating new problems with new solutions. That’s of course never the goal." Limits of LCAs Reusable systems like Loop open the door to a larger debate within the field of environmental accounting. In recent years, officials at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) have surveyed literature and pioneered studies assessing the sustainability of reusable systems in a range of contexts, from water bottles to beer kegs. "There’s no simple answer to the question of disposable versus reusable packaging," said Peter Canepa, an LCA practitioner at the DEQ, in an interview with Waste Dive. At the request of local brewers in Oregon, the DEQ performed an LCA to determine the impact of the industry’s traditional reusable stainless steel kegs when compared with the rise of new single-use plastic beer kegs. "Even with the washing and sterilization, all those steps were accounted for and reusable stainless steel kegs were more beneficial," said Canepa, referring to the LCA results. "But there started to be a point of inflection." Reuse made sense for breweries in Oregon who distribute their product locally, but numbers began to tilt in favor of disposable as distance was added to the supply chain. According to Canepa, breweries distributing East of the Mississippi found there were sufficient environmental implications, to the point that "making a new plastic keg, using it once, and disposing of it was actually less impactful." It is at this point that the LCA school of thought diverges from the one Loop more closely adheres to. Advocates of circular economy theory (like SPC’s Gendell) still promote the use of LCA as a tool, but put far more weight on systems being regenerative. The idea is that waste from one system forms a resource for another. "That can’t always be measured with any type of precision with a tool like LCA, which is an important, but imperfect science," Gendell explained. LCA, for example, does not yet have a way to quantify the effects of litter on marine or land environments, a category in which disposable materials score very poorly. Unpackaged’s Conway agrees that literature on reuse can often be difficult to decipher. "The thing that’s annoying is that it’s very hard to get independent environmental data … These industry-sponsored studies are not 100% reliable." She argues that just because reusable systems like Loop require more upfront resources than disposables shouldn’t be a reason to discount them, even if the LCA initially says otherwise. Especially in the beginning, it may be the case that they just require a bit of scale to make it worth it. "I don’t think that’s a bad system until they get to that point, I think they just have to be aware that it’s probably going to be inefficient to start off with," she said. The experiment continues Loop’s pilot model (the length of which is said to be undetermined) preserves extreme convenience, but that likely will not be way this service grows in the future. "What we’re doing now, to make it as convenient for consumers as possible, is really allowing them to order and return packaging at any time," explained Weir. "The purchasing of the products and the returning are truly two separate interactions." In an ideal world, pick-ups would coincide with drop-offs and vice-versa. And retailers, who have their own fleets of trucks, would leave warehouses full in the morning and come back full with returns (as opposed to returning empty, as they do now). In the future integrated version, consumers will purchase and return Loop products at retail locations directly. Confirmed partners include Walgreens and Kroger in the United States, Carrefour in France and Tesco in the U.K. The advantage to this model is that products would be sold in locations many shoppers already frequent, side-by-side with disposable counterparts of the same items. "That kind of brick-and-mortar shopping is going to open up additional avenues for the consumer," said Patrick Browne, director of sustainability at UPS, in an interview with Waste Dive. The company continues to work with Loop on the e-commerce model, but Browne said that retail deliveries would pose less of a logistical challenge. They take place in more dense settings, where drivers are delivering multiple packages per stop, making them more efficient. Whereas "in e-commerce, which is residential, typically your stops are a little bit farther in between houses." Loop’s decisions about reuse and disposal are not purely determined by environmental impact, sparking further complications. This comprises perhaps Loop's biggest challenge: balancing the complex, fragile world of environmental accounting with the extremely qualitative world of corporate branding, which has an altogether different set of values. For the companies Loop works with, packaging isn’t just about getting a product from here to there, or even strictly about safety. It’s also about maintaining brand uniformity and image. Disposable packaging, where each purchase yields a fresh container, does this quite well. Conversely, "packaging that is reusable will naturally scratch. It will naturally bend," said Weir, "There are very few ways around that. Especially when we’re looking at high, high numbers of reuse cycles." Loop’s challenge has been encouraging companies to reconsider their traditional stance on wear and tear, which is typically viewed as a performance failure. In the end, participating brands determine what is the standard for reuse, and where to draw the line between refilling and disposing. It is Loop’s job to adhere to that standard, meaning disposal may occur on the hundredth cycle, or the tenth. “The positive side is that I think these solutions are important to start to change the dialogue on end-of-life packaging and waste that’s become so normalized in American culture,” said MIT’s Bateman. "Even if the future of Loop looks very different from what it is now, the trials of today are essential to shifting the discourse on disposables." At the end of the day, Loop reveals an inconvenient truth about reusable systems: In the current market, it takes more work to make less waste. According to DEQ's Canepa, that extra work is necessary because, in a reusable world, more durable materials with a higher lifecycle impact raise the stakes. “This sounds really banal, but if the thing made to be reusable is not reused, or more specifically is not reused a specific number of times,” he explained, “then you actually may be doing worse [sic] for the environment.” Reusable programs thus require vigilant stewarding to ensure proper use, an inescapable part of Loop's grand experiment. "They can’t be left to operate to themselves,” emphasized Weir. “There needs to be certain rules, there need to be certain frameworks. Because one-to-one, a stainless steel container versus a paper pint, I mean, there’s no comparison.”

10 world-changing solutions that inspired the most hope in 2019

Our most popular profiles of projects focused on improving the world, from climate to plastic waste to homelessness to housing. The world could seem like a hard and hopeless place on many, if not most, days in 2019. In spite of that feeling, there are people who are devoting their time to trying to do good work, and we try to bring you those stories when we can. Of the thousands of people and projects we profiled this year in Fast Company‘s Impact section, a few stories really struck a chord with readers, and so we’re collecting them here for you.  Perhaps they’ll make you feel compelled to do something similar yourself. Perhaps they’ll just make you a little more hopeful about the future. They range from a village of 3D-printed houses to a young man reaching the next step in his years-long quest to clean up the ocean and from cities finding ways to end homelessness to cities finding ways to end driving. See what inspires you. A COALITION OF GIANT BRANDS IS ABOUT TO CHANGE HOW WE SHOP FOREVER, WITH A NEW ZERO-WASTE PLATFORM As the world’s attention turned to single-use plastic this year, many companies began offering plans to cut back on their waste streams. But one of the boldest plans involved many companies—including giants like Unilever and Proctor & Gamble—joining forces to both eliminate packaging and change how we shop. The new project, called Loop, was organized by recycling company TerraCycle. Each item available for delivery on Loop comes in a reusable package, like ice cream in a stainless steel pint container. When you’re done, you return it to Loop to be cleaned, refilled, and sent back to another customer. Read more. 3 CITIES IN THE U.S. HAVE ENDED CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS: HERE’S HOW THEY DID IT A program called Built for Zero uses a combination of intense data and cross-department meetings to track homelessness. “By ending homelessness, we mean getting to a place where it’s rare, brief, and it gets solved correctly and quickly when it does happen,” Rosanne Haggerty, president of Community Solutions, the nonprofit that leads the Built for Zero program, told us. “That’s a completely achievable end state, we now see.” The nonprofit calls this goal “functional zero,” and it’s already proved effective in places like Bergen County, New Jersey, and Abilene, Texas. So far, nine communities have reached the goal of “functional zero” for veteran homelessness, and three communities have reached the goal for chronic homelessness. Read more. THE WORLD’S FIRST 3D-PRINTED NEIGHBORHOOD NOW HAS ITS FIRST HOUSES New Story is a nonprofit that used to build houses in the developing world the old-fashioned way. But wanting to speed up and smooth out that process, it worked with construction company Icon to develop a giant 3D printer capable of generating the walls of an entire 500-square-foot house in 24 hours. After that, workers add doors, windows, and roofs. The first community of homes is currently being built in Mexico, and the organization is now exploring the idea of bringing the technology to the U.S., as well. Read more. THIS STARTUP WANTS TO PUT A FREE TINY HOUSE IN YOUR BACKYARD Backyard houses won’t fix California’s housing crisis, but they could be an important way to get more people on limited land in cities. Because a new California law has made it easier to get the permits to build such structures, there’s a lot of hope for their growth. But it’s still a lot of work with big upfront costs to get a contractor to build you one. Rent the Backyard wants to make it easier: it will handle the building of what’s called an “accessory dwelling unit,” or ADU, in exchange for splitting the rent with the homeowner. Read more. The Norwegian capital removed 700 parking spaces and replaced them with bike lanes, plants, tiny parks, and benches. As we wrote at the time: “A few spots are left, converted into parking for disabled drivers or EV charging, and some streets are open for delivery trucks for a couple of hours in the morning. Emergency vehicles still have access. But other drivers have to park in garages, and traffic restrictions help nudge drivers who don’t need to go through the city center to take a ring road around it instead. In a new zoning plan, the city is taking its intentions further, giving pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation greater priority than private cars, and planning a network of pedestrian zones that are fully car-free.” The city coupled this with a heavy investment in public transit, and the results are good: the air is cleaner and businesses—which were worried about the change—are seeing increased foot traffic. Read more. Instead of using standard asphalt, Los Angeles is testing a new road material that’s made partly from recycled plastic bottles. The roads are meant to last longer, which means less time and money doing street repairs. But more importantly, it enables a machine to chew up the old road, remix it with plastic, and lay it right back down when it’s time to repave—instead of hauling away the old asphalt and trucking new material in. Read more. After Medicare for All, the Green New Deal has been one of the most animating policy ideas of the Democratic primary. Shortly after the initial bill was introduced by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Edward Markey, we took a deep look at what it could mean for transforming business in sectors from agriculture to tech to philanthropy. “The Green New Deal is a framework for exerting external pressure on industries,” Markey told us. “But it can also be a framework for internal corporate operations for every industry, and guide the discussion going forward inside every company and sector.” Read more. ‘PRESCRIBING’ FRUITS AND VEGGIES WOULD SAVE $100 BILLION IN MEDICAL COSTS Fruits and vegetables: they’re quite good for you. But they can be expensive. A study looked at what would happen if Medicare and Medicaid subsidized the cost of fresh produce and found that it would prevent 1.93 million cardiovascular events (such as heart attacks) and 350,000 deaths, as well as cut healthcare costs by $40 billion. Read more. LOS ANGELES IS TESTING ‘PLASTIC ASPHALT’ THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO RECYCLE ROADS Instead of using standard asphalt, Los Angeles is testing a new road material that’s made partly from recycled plastic bottles. The roads are meant to last longer, which means less time and money doing street repairs. But more importantly, it enables a machine to chew up the old road, remix it with plastic, and lay it right back down when it’s time to repave—instead of hauling away the old asphalt and trucking new material in. Read more. HOW TO DESIGN A GREEN NEW DEAL THAT REALLY WORKS, FOR EVERY INDUSTRY IN THE U.S. After Medicare for All, the Green New Deal has been one of the most animating policy ideas of the Democratic primary. Shortly after the initial bill was introduced by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Edward Markey, we took a deep look at what it could mean for transforming business in sectors from agriculture to tech to philanthropy. “The Green New Deal is a framework for exerting external pressure on industries,” Markey told us. “But it can also be a framework for internal corporate operations for every industry, and guide the discussion going forward inside every company and sector.” Read more. THESE TREE-PLANTING DRONES ARE FIRING SEED MISSILES TO RESTORE THE WORLD’S FORESTS Planting trees is one of the simplest ways to sequester carbon and thus mitigate the effects of climate change. One study found that one trillion trees is the number needed to make a real dent in the problem. One trillion, though, is a lot of trees to plant. But what if we outsourced the tree planting to drones? In Myanmar, a company called Biocarbon Engineering is building drones, training locals how to use them, and then using the drones to fire seeds into the ground, helping regrow the country’s mangrove forests. Read more. THE OCEAN CLEANUP DEVICE HAS RETURNED FROM THE PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH WITH ITS FIRST LOAD OF PLASTIC Boyan Slat first proposed the idea for the Ocean Cleanup machine—a giant device to collect the ocean plastic that has collected in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—at a TEDx talk in 2012. Since then, he’s managed to raise the funds to build it, test several iterations, and finally get a functional prototype out into the Pacific Ocean. Now it’s returned, and we can see the results: 60 one-cubic-meter bags full of trash. Now that the proof of concept is done, the next step is building even bigger devices, and launching a whole fleet of them, with the goal of cleaning up half the garbage patch in five years. Read more.

Want to use less plastic in 2020? These companies can help

Brands saying no to plastic

The global plastic crisis is getting out of hand. Many single-use plastic items, only designed to be used once, take centuries to decompose. With just 14% of plastic packaging being recycled, according to a 2017 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and World Economic Forum, recycling clearly isn’t working either. Fortunately, some companies are making huge strides in reducing the amount of plastic they use – click or scroll through as we take a look at what they're doing.      

These Disposable Mini Toothbrushes Will Change the Way You Travel, Especially on Red-eye Flights

  Though I’m a frequent flier, I’m embarrassed to say that it took me a long time to identify my “must-have” travel items. A simple suitcase, a bag, and a jacket — that’s all I took with me on flights. It also didn’t matter if the flight was two hours long or seven hours long, a red-eye or a midday affair. Of course, this resulted in some miserable flying experiences, all because I just didn’t take the time to figure out what would make traveling easier for me.   Then, last year, I arrived at the airport for a red-eye flight to Paris with a major headache. I didn’t pack any painkillers (again, unprepared me), so my first stop post-security was a store that would have some. I was waiting to pay when I saw the Colgate Max Fresh Wisp Disposable Mini Toothbrushes — the person in front of me had grabbed a package of them from the checkout kiosk.   I had never seen them before, but my only toothbrush was in my suitcase, and I was in for a long flight before I reached Paris. Surely, my breath would be terrible by the time I got there (and the copious amounts of coffee I planned on drinking upon arrival weren’t going to help it). So I grabbed a package too.   It was during that flight that I discovered the beauty of the Colgate Max Fresh Wisp Disposable Mini Toothbrushes. They can be used anywhere, without water or a sink — all you need is the toothbrush and your mouth, and you’re good to go. (That said, I would still recommend going to the bathroom to use it, because you will still look like you’re brushing your teeth, and it’s just polite.)   To use, simply pop the toothbrush in your mouth, and press it against one of your teeth to break the seal on the prepasted toothpaste. I recommend doing this with your back molars, but it doesn’t fully make a difference if you do it with another tooth — have fun with it, you know?   Once you break the seal, you’ll be able to brush with it like a normal toothbrush. Since there’s no water, the toothpaste won’t get as frothy as you’re used to, but your mouth will still take on that minty, just-brushed feeling. Once you’re done with the toothbrush, just toss it. (Even better: The toothbrushes are able to be safely upcycled through the Terracycle recycling program.) These things are single use, making them even more perfect for plane travel — you don’t have to figure out where to store them once you’re finished.   I used to go on full red-eye flights without brushing my teeth, but once I actually started using this product, I realized what I difference it makes. To land at your destination feeling like you’ve just used a real toothbrush wakes you up and readies you for whatever you have ahead of you.   I’ve traveled by plane a lot since that life-changing flight to Paris — often on red-eyes — and not once have I left these Colgate Max Fresh Wisp Disposable Mini Toothbrushes at home. Each time, I’ve truly found them to be the most convenient and refreshing travel accessory you can take with you on a plane, probably next to straight up water. And, as a bonus, I now always land after flights with nice breath, as opposed to ‘I’ve just spent seven hours on a plane without brushing my teeth’ breath.

Eco-Entrepreneur Jeannie Jarnot on her Ethical Beauty Company, Beauty Heroes

THERE ARE MICROBEADS, BHA and BHT preservatives, silicones and phthalates … oh, and don’t forget formaldehyde, selenium sulfide, hydroquinone and something called ethylene-diaminetetraacetic acid. It is difficult enough to pronounce some of these hidden ingredients in cosmetics, let alone determine whether or not they will harm the environment or our health. As a former wine country spa director and as founder and CEO of the subscription service and curated retail brand Beauty Heroes, Novato resident Jeannie Jarnot has spent much of her life working to discover the cleanest and most environmentally sound cosmetic lines and has built education into both her online subscription service and her recently opened flagship store in her hometown. The clean beauty business is predicted to become a $22 billion dollar industry worldwide by 2024, and Jarnot, who has been called an “eco-preneur” and is quoted widely in her role as a clean, green and now “blue” beauty expert, asks consumers to consider the lasting impact of their purchases. We sat down with her to get an insider’s view of healthy beauty and how to make the most environmentally sound product choices.
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When did you become passionate about clean beauty?

I was a spa director at Carneros Inn for many years and as soon as I heard there were ingredients like parabens or PEGs (polyethylene glycols, aka petroleum-based compounds) we were using in the spa that might be harmful to my staff and to our customers, I said, “Well, let’s not use those products or those ingredients. Why would we use something harmful at a spa? We are supposed to make people feel healthier and feel better and be more well.” So, my idea was to champion the products I had discovered and have loved for years and to create a service that would offer those products.

Is there anything that the average consumer should look out for on labels?

Yes. Back when I didn’t understand what we in the clean beauty industry call “the fragrance loop-hole,” I would trust brands that said their product didn’t have parabens or PEGs. But what I didn’t understand is that when a company lists “fragrance” in the ingredient list, that could mean anything. The FDA protects “fragrance” as a trade secret. I would find out later that a product might contain a whole host of ingredients I was trying to avoid. So fragrance is bad because it really can (and usually does) contain some combination of harmful ingredients. Another to look out for is PEGs. PEG stands for polyethylene glycol — aka liquid plastic. These PEGs are an ethoxylated ingredient that has a byproduct of 1,4-Dioxane — a cancer-causing compound. PEGs are very common. The other one I really don’t like is dimethicone or cyclopentasiloxane. These are common silicones that don’t biodegrade. You can find them in everything from face creams and body creams to sham- poo, sunscreen and makeup. They are everywhere and they are invisible. But they get washed into our water systems and never really go away. There are many more — but those are some of the most common.

What is trending in skin care for consumers?

CBD is definitely trending — in everything. I can’t believe how the world exploded with CBD-infused everything. I think full-spectrum hemp is great for the skin and it has amazing medicinal properties. But [with CBD-infused products], you have to really make sure you are buying products that have CBD that has been extracted without other chemicals. It’s a tricky ingredient to work with, as anyone who is working with it will tell you. I am also seeing saffron pop up as a trending ingredient. I personally have seen amazing results with saffron in skin care; it’s a remarkable skin-brightening ingredient. And then I am seeing retinol everywhere. Everyone is rushing to get their retinol product out. I like botanical retinol, [obtained] from moth bean extract and bakuchiol. It’s done wonders for my skin. There’s a big debate about synthetic retinol and if it’s safe. Botanical retinol is a great alternative if you don’t want to use a synthetic product but want to see visible results.

I know you are from Hawaii. Are there any particular natural ingredients from the Hawaiian Islands that are especially effective?

There are several ingredients that are sourced in Hawaii that are so good for the skin. The first is heirloom turmeric that grows wild in Hawaii and is being farmed in the traditional way of the old Hawaiians. I also love aloe, which is abundant in Hawaii and very multipurpose in skin care. Hibiscus flower is line-smoothing, and in Hawaii they call it the Botox plant. And there is an effort to reforest native Hawaiian sandalwood, which is antibacterial and naturally exfoliating while having a grounding, earthy scent. And of course there are kukui and macadamia nut oils, which are rich in essential fatty acids and low on the comedogenic [pore-clogging] scale.

What are some of your favorite zero-waste products?

I have been impressed with how much our zero-waste products have been selling. For example, the little tiny dental floss in the refillable container — it is an improved aesthetic and improved product and so much better for the environment. It is an all-around win-win. Or our deodorant that is compostable. The Saalt reusable menstrual cups are another example. They are zero-waste and so much better than traditional products; I think everyone should be using them.

Tell us more about the term “blue beauty.”

The next evolution for Beauty Heroes is our passion for “blue beauty,” a term that we coined, which means using a business to be regenerative toward the environment. “Green beauty” is being conscious of ingredients and packaging and working toward sustainability. Blue is one step beyond green. We saw that a number of other brands in our industry are making a serious effort to be regenerative toward the environment and educate customers about regenerative practices. For example, the Honua skin care team works with small farmers to replenish overharvested plants in Hawaii. Laurel [beauty products], here in Sausalito, is a pioneer of the “slow beauty” movement, working with farmers and sourcing within 100 miles. Osmia Organics plants a tree for every order — they’ve planted over 30,000 trees and counting. So we wanted to champion that and educate consumers about our brands that are finding ways to use the business to go beyond and give back to the environment. People really get it when you lay products out for them to touch, test and try. People want to do well for the environment; they just need to be shown that it’s better and easier and good quality, that they’re not giving something up. There are certain things where there is no good zero-waste alternative yet. For example, razors. So we’re adding a TerraCycle box for razors in the store so people can bring them in and they’ll be 100 per- cent recycled. We are trying to close the loop. It’s all going to change. It has to.
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Why did you choose Novato to open your flagship store?

I have lived in Novato since 2003 and love it. I had heard about Blue Barn opening in downtown Novato in the old DeBorba’s bar. I wasn’t actually planning to open a brick and mortar. I was looking for a warehouse, and I now have one nearby, but when I looked around the space, which is right next door to where Blue Barn is opening, I thought, “If I were going to open a store this would be a good location.” Then, one day not long after, I was sick in bed and couldn’t do anything else but lie there and think, and I said to myself, “If I am going to Blue Barn for lunch three times a week and there is some very cool store next to it and I didn’t even make a phone call to explore the idea of opening a store there, I will always regret it.” That was a Friday. I made an appointment with the landlord for Monday, and we signed the lease on Wednesday. So far, all I have felt here in Novato is gratitude. People come in and say, “Thank you for opening this store here.” The community is ready. Past ready.

What is your favorite local spa?

My favorite spa in the Bay Area is Osmosis [Sonoma County]. I love spending a day in the meditation garden there followed by an enzyme bath. I always splurge and get the 90-minute massage in the pagoda up on the hill behind the meditation garden. It’s a bit extra, but worth it.

Where did the name Beauty Heroes come from?

The term “hero product” is a beauty industry term and that’s what inspired our name. For me it was about discovering healthy beauty, one “hero product” at a time. But the word hero means something different to different people. It can mean empowering themselves by choosing healthy products. Or, because we are a 1 percent for the planet company — meaning we are very interested in giving back to the environment and 1 percent of our top-line revenue goes toward environmental organizations — some people think that is where the hero part comes in.
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Swiffer and TerraCycle Partner to Launch the Swiffer Recycling Program Nationwide

Swiffer®, a pioneer in the Quick Clean category and used in more than 50 million households worldwide, has partnered with international recycling leader TerraCycle® to make their Swiffer Sweeper™, Duster and WetJet™ refills nationally recyclable. As an added incentive, for every shipment of Swiffer waste sent to TerraCycle through the Swiffer Recycling Program, collectors earn points that can be used for charity gifts or converted to cash and donated to the non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   “We are very excited about our partnership with TerraCycle to offer free recycling of all Swiffer refills in the US. This is an important step towards sustainable solutions for our products and the start of an exciting journey with Swiffer and TerraCycle” said NA Brand Director, Kevin Wenzel.   Through the Swiffer Recycling Program, consumers can now send in the following Swiffer cleaning products to be recycled for free:   ·            Swiffer® Sweeper™ Wet Mopping Cloths ·            Swiffer® Sweeper™ Dry Sweeping Cloths ·            Swiffer® Sweeper™ Wet Heavy-Duty Mopping Cloths ·            Swiffer® Sweeper™ Dry Heavy-Duty Sweeping Cloths ·            Swiffer® Dusters™ ·            Swiffer® Heavy-Duty Dusters™ ·            Swiffer® WetJet™ Mopping pads ·            Swiffer® WetJet™ Heavy-Duty Mopping pads ·            Swiffer® WetJet™ Wood Mopping pads   Participation in the program is easy, simply sign up on the TerraCycle program page at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/swiffer and mail in the accepted waste using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the waste is broken down, separated by material and the plastics are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products.   The Swiffer Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.com.

Lavazza Professional Reaches Recycling Milestone

Lavazza Professional, a part of one of the world’s largest coffee companies, announced it has recycled more than 156 million FLAVIA Freshpacks through its ongoing “Recycle Your Freshpack Program,” created in partnership with TerraCycle, a world leader in the collection and repurposing of complex waste streams.   Lavazza Professional, a part of one of the world’s largest coffee companies, announced it has recycled more than 156 million FLAVIA Freshpacks through its ongoing “Recycle Your Freshpack Program,” created in partnership with TerraCycle, a world leader in the collection and repurposing of complex waste streams.   "Finding viable and credible 'end-of-life' solutions for our products is very important to us and forms part of our ongoing sustainability strategy work," said Richard Bond, global senior manager sustainability at Lavazza Professional, in a statement. "TerraCycle has been a critical partner in offering this recycling solution for our FLAVIA Freshpacks and helping us to reach this wonderful milestone. Strong partnerships are a critical factor in this work, which we hope to build on with TerraCycle as we identify ways in which we can further support our customers and distributors in achieving their own sustainability targets. We have come a long way over our 10-year relationship with TerraCycle, and we look forward to continuing to help our customers recycle our FLAVIA Freshpacks and reduce their environmental impact."     Through the recycling program, businesses serviced by an authorized Lavazza Professional distributor were invited to take part in making their workplace more sustainable by diverting single-serve Freshpacks from landfill. To participate, businesses registered at recycleyourfreshpacks.com, collected their empty FLAVIA Freshpacks, downloaded a shipping label and returned the waste to TerraCycle for recycling.   "Since TerraCycle was founded more than 15 years ago, we’ve worked with companies like Lavazza Professional to make recycling as convenient and effective as possible," said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky in a statement. “This milestone demonstrates that by offering a simple solution to waste, a significant impact can be achieved that not only preserves the environment but makes the world a better, cleaner place." The Recycle Your Freshpack Program has been adopted by workplaces nationwide and is especially popular among Fortune 500 companies eager to lessen their ecological footprint.    

Words of wisdom from your packaging peers

The packaging field advances as fast as it does partly because people openly share ideas, pain points and best practices. Throughout 2019, we interviewed several subject matter experts on key concerns, including sustainability challenges and solutions (specifically around plastics), benefits of working with Gen Z, ecommerce packaging improvements, using robots to improve packaging machinery operation and the impact of social media on packaging design.   Here are select thought-provoking quotes from packaging executives—from major brand owners such as Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay and Coca-Cola—in articles exclusive to Packaging Digest. Click the “View Gallery” button to the bottom right of the photo above to scroll quickly through the quotes.   To give these remarks context, here are links to the articles these quotes have come from:   1. Tom Szaky, founder/CEO, TerraCycle and Loop Loop and big brands boldly reinvent waste-free packaging 2. Captain James (Jim) Lovell, astronaut Packaging in space! 3. Survey respondent, 2019 Packaging Digest Consumer Survey on Plastic Packaging Sustainability Consumers want non-plastic packaging options 4. Ivan Keener, student, Michigan State University, School of Packaging Gen Z on technology, packaging jobs and the environment 5. John R. Henry, owner, Changeover.com The right way to use robots in packaging machines 6. Nestlé USA packaging sustainability manager Walt Peterson Nestlé clarifies its sustainable packaging vision 7. Jason Foster, Replenish founder and chief reuser Amazon chooses refillable packaging for Clean Revolution 8. Anitra Marsh, global sustainability task leader for P&G’s Global Skin and Personal Care brands Olay is latest household brand to embrace refillable packaging 9. Bruno Van Gompel, technical and supply chain director, Coca-Cola Western Europe Coca-Cola trials recycled marine plastic for beverage packaging 10. Katie Ceclan, senior director of marketing, Frito-Lay North America Social media-friendly food packaging ‘reignites’ Lay’s brand 11. Trina Matta, senior manager, Sustainable Packaging Coalition Non-plastic packaging isn’t the only sustainable solution 12. Kim Marotta, global senior director of corporate responsibility, Molson Coors Molson Coors shrinks plastic packaging’s Beer Print 13. Maximiliano Sassone, research and innovation director at Danone Argentina Danone’s new yogurt jar conveys ‘natural’ and premium 14. Martijn Huijbreghs, IT application manager with BBio Biopharmaceutical company uses label system to enhance ops